Rivera's Article

Rivera's Article

Omar Rivera

Mariàtegui’s Avant-Garde and Surrealism as Discipline

This essay explains Mariàtegui’s critical relationship with Breton in terms of his views on Surrealism. In order to understand this relationship, this essay engages in an analysis of (1) Mariàtegui’s notion of the avant-garde as a synthesis of aesthetics and politics and of (ii) the positioning of Mariàtegui’s avant-garde in relation to post First World War European bourgeoisie and fascism. This interpretation of Mariàtegui’s reveals a determination of Surrealism as discipline that preserves this movement’s revolutionary task in different geo-historical sites. With attention to the difficult, non-systematic character of Mariàtegui’s writings, this essay also provides a series of concepts that could assist further interpretations of Mariàtegui’s aesthetics and politics.

Volume 18, Issue 1, Spring 2014

102-124